


Journey

by bloominsummer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 17:45:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12137784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloominsummer/pseuds/bloominsummer
Summary: in which Derek proposes to Stiles and gets an unexpected answer.





	Journey

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this fic. No copyright infringement is intended.

Derek opens his eyes and instantly feels all the beating he took the day before all at once. He tries to take in his surroundings. He’s certainly not in the abandoned warehouse anymore, but it’s a little too dark to tell whose house it is. 

He begins to move a little but the attempt is immediately shut down by the excruciating pain in his left shoulder. He tries his best not to scream his lungs out. He looks down instead and sees someone sitting on a chair next to the bed. He also notices a mop of brown hair resting peacefully on his middle, head turned away from him. Definitely Stiles, he thinks.

 “Hey,” he greets him, running his fingers through Stiles’ hair slowly. His voice is hoarse, even more so than usual. Stiles doesn’t hear him, so he tries again, a little bit louder this time.

Stiles jolts awake, his eyes bloodshot. HIs expression is hard, but it softens instantly as he meets Derek’s eyes. “Hey,” he takes Derek’s hand, kissing it. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

Derek wants to laugh, but he immediately thinks better of it. It might move his organs around or something and he definitely does not want _that_.

Stiles helps him raise his head a little and gets a glass of water close enough to his mouth and Derek drinks. His throat feels like it’s catching on fire after the first gulp but he forces himself to take another two.

Stiles lays him back down gently.

“Tell that to my kidnappers.”

“I would, but they’re kinda dead,” Stiles replies calmly. He doesn’t sound angry, he doesn’t sound disgusted, there’s no hatred in his voice. If anything, he sounds a little tired, but other than that he just tells the fact without any supporting emotion. That reminds Derek how scary even humans can be when you mess with the people they love.

“Yeah?”

He nods. “Yeah, Peter went ballistic. I think he wants to be the only person allowed to kill his family members.”

That sure sounds like the Peter Derek knows so well.

“Is that so?” he asks. He wants to reach Stiles’ face and cup it in his hands, but it still hurts too much. They gave him a wolfsbane mixture to stop his healing when they took him, chugged it into his mouth every couple hours. Then they came, with all their tools and their questions. They wanted information on Scott.

Derek would never give up Scott. He didn’t even have to think about it. He sees Stiles smiling down at him, a sad smile, but it’s a start. He knows then he made the right decision. Leading them to Scott would have meant leading them to Stiles, and Derek would give up his life before that ever happens.

Stiles pushes a strand out hair out of his face and rests his palm on Derek’s forehead, as if to check his temperature. “Don’t talk so much,” he suggests before withdrawing his hand to massage his temple.

That’s when Derek notices it. “What about those bruises on your…” he pauses, swallowing the metallic taste in his mouth, “knuckles?”

Stiles looks surprised, like he hasn’t noticed that there are cuts on them. He flexes his hand and then balls his fingers into a fist. He tells Derek lightly, “I might have throw in a punch.”

“Doesn’t look like one punch,” Derek takes his hand.

Stiles takes it back quickly, reprimanding him with the stern voice he usually reserves for life-or-death arguments, “Stop that.”

“Why?” Derek asks innocently. “I’m just trying to take your pain.”

“Not now. You heal. Please,” he pleads, his voice breaking. Derek stares at his face, his beautiful face that was once untainted with years of trauma and suffering, and the tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Are you okay?”

A dumb question, he knows. If their current roles were reserved, Derek would have gone and pick a fight with whoever he sees on his way to kill who took Stiles. He is actually taking it way much better than Derek would have.

They have been together for years, now, but Derek will never get used to seeing Stiles hurt. Even the thought makes him sick in his stomach. It took them many years to even approach the idea of being together, but when they eventually did, no one was surprised besides the two of them. Apparently, they were being clear about their mutual attraction to everyone in the room but each other. Stiles did not find that amusing, but Derek promised that he’ll make up for all the time they could have been together. And he tried his best to keep his promise. 

Stiles answers his question honestly after a beat, “Not really, but I feel better now that you’re conscious.”

Derek closes his eyes. “I love you, Stiles.”

“Yeah, here’s an idea: surprise me by getting me flowers like normal people would. Don’t go missing on our anniversary.”

He opens his eyes again, and remembers. Remembers the velvet box on his jacket pocket he clutched with all he had while he was walking down to the station to pick Stiles up. Remembers the reservation he had made at Alesandro’s, Stiles favourite non-burger restaurant. Remembers the conversation he had with the Sheriff a couple months before, asking for his blessing. Remembers asking Lydia to help him choose up a ring.

Then some assholes had to take him and beat the crap out of him, ruining what supposed to be one of the best days of his life. Damn, some things just don’t work out well for Derek, do they?

He clears his throat. “Oh, yeah, about that. I have a question to ask.”

“Hm?” Stiles replies absentmindedly.

“You wanna marry me?” Derek proposes. Stiles stares at him, unmoving. There’s disbelief in his eyes. Derek tries to explain himself, “I would go on one knee, but I think my legs are still broken.”

Stiles stands up from the chair and takes a step back. “Noooooo!” he drawls the syllable out.

Derek thinks—no, he knows—that hurt more than anything he had to take up to that point.

“No?” he asks tentatively.

“No!” Stiles half-shouts at him. Then he realises what he just said and his eyes widens. He scrambles to sit back in his seat and holds Derek’s hand. “I mean, not no, but _I_ wanted to ask _you_! I— I have a ring and everything. I was gonna propose at dinner!”

Derek breathes out in relief. “Same,” he says.

Stiles looks at him funny. “Did you just say ‘same’?”

“I’m in extreme pain,” he reasons with him. Truth be told, he’s just trying to save his energy by now. He doesn’t want to fall back asleep in the middle of an important conversation about their future together.

“Are you asking _because_ you’re in extreme pain?”

“No, I wanted to ask before,” he reassures Stiles. “hence the ring. I just happen to have the chance when I’m in extreme pain.”

“Oh, okay,” the younger man affirms.

Derek stays quiet for awhile, tries to get a good listen of Stiles’ heartbeat. It’s pounding like crazy and Derek doesn’t need to check to know that his heart is singing the same song as Stiles’.

“Did you answer me? I can’t remember.”

“I did,” Stiles nods.

Derek stares at the ceiling and blinks a couple times. “Did you? I didn’t hear a yes.”

He doesn’t have to look at Stiles to know he’s rolling his eyes at Derek’s persistence for hearing the words. “Yes, Derek, I want to marry you,” Stiles moves to kiss his forehead, extremely careful in his movement that Derek barely feels it.

“Cool.” Derek’s lips arch upward in a dazed smile.

Stiles laughs and the sound makes Derek feels a lot better than he actually is. “I can’t believe you just said ‘same’ and ‘cool’ a minute apart from each other. What is this medicine Deaton’s giving you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says lightly.

Stiles laughs again. “Oh yeah, tough guy?”

“Yeah, you’re stuck with me forever now,” he turns his head towards Stiles as he says this, wanting to make sure that he knows Derek’s telling the truth.

“I certainly hope so,” Stiles says affectionately, caressing the cut on cheek.

“My personal ball and chain,” the werewolf mumbles.

“The ball and chain is now telling you to go back to sleep, and that he’ll be here when you wake up.”

Derek likes the sound of that, so he tells Stiles as much, “Sounds good.”

Stiles wipes the tears from the corner of his eyes and tries not to blow his nose because he doesn’t want to ruin the perfectly romantic moment they’re having. He hopes this occasion will be the last time he comes close to losing Derek, since he doesn’t think he can cope another attempt at his fiancé’s life. At this point, losing Derek will drive him to the point of insanity.

“I love you too, sourwolf.”

Derek falls asleep to Stiles’ thumb running up and down his own and the taste of absolute happiness in his mouth.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Stiles proposes to him back because he wants to do it the right way, which means he gets to go on one knee and beats Derek’s proposal. Sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s not in high school anymore.

Derek answers with ‘not no’ instead of ’yes’. He says, ‘not no, I want to marry you’. Stiles jumps into his arms and buries his face in Derek’s neck, tells him that he wishestheir forever will be filled with times like this.

Derek tries his best to fulfil that wish the rest of his life.


End file.
